Photos by Ava London
Horse Jumper of Lover epitomized slumped shoulders, abstract smears of ash on cigarette-littered concrete, unlaced shoes and ill-fitting jeans. As a collective, the indie rock band delivered a harrowingly pessimistic performance to Highland Park’s Lodge Room, supported by the similarly downcast Teethe and the slow-burning Sour Widows.
Clambering up The Lodge Room’s narrow entryway staircase felt like coming home; having attended a multitude of shows within the former Masonic Temple’s oakwood walls, the cramped ballroom, kitschy tropical paintings, and suspended disco ball have become harbingers of a night well spent.
Upon my emergence from the dim stairwell to a purple-bathed hall, I was met with Sour Widow’s spacey, shoegaze-y riffs, Maia Sinaiko and Susanna Thomson trading off sweet, occasionally bitterness-laced vocals. The bay-area band flourished when Sinaiko and Thompson’s voices mingled, creating a deliciously resonant harmony such as on the angsty “Cherish.” Having recently released 2024’s Revival of a Friend, Sour Widow’s brief set was a manifestation of the album’s prolonged instrumental breaks and emotional narratives, as the group’s impassioned vocalists could be seen oscillating between anger, passion, and grief.
As a born-and-bred Californian, If you asked me what slowcore coming out of Texas sounded like I would probably blindly guess something adjacent to Teethe: a depressed amalgamation of slide guitar, subdued vocals, and tepid drumming. Teethe shook up an overwhelmingly melodic set with grizzly guitar tones, briefly forefronting a glasses-clad drummer, whose energized pounding marked a departure from intentionally leisurely, in-the-pocket beats.
With members Boone Patrello, Grahm Robinson, Madeline Dowd, and Jordan Garrett intent on maintaining a sedentary set, Teethe’s vitality manifested beyond the physical. As layered vocals broke through a guitar-laden haze, the apparent preoccupation of Teethe’s individual members was refuted by a collective approach to building an emotion-packed sound.
With the Sour Widows and Teethe’s sets together concluding within an hour, the show was fast-moving; in the blink of an eye, Horse Jumper of Love was before us, debuting songs from 2024’s Disaster Trick, noticeably heavier relative to the indie rock soundscape the band occupied with previous releases. Donning a permanent scrunched scowl, frontman Dimitri Giannopoulos’s meditations on isolation in “Snow Angel” were set against a fluctuating drone, tapering off as if by command when met with Giannopoulos’ low croon. In “Wink,” a personal favorite, rather than parting for Giannopoulos, bassist John Margais and drummer Jamie Vadala-Doran met him head on in with writhing melodic accompaniments.
“Ugly Brunette,” a patient track, effused a fuzziness occasionally dispersed by crisp guitar tones. Bordering on slowcore, “Ugly Brunette’s” powerful, interrupt-continue nature encapsulated where the band finds the most sonic success. So well received, when I peered over my shoulder to assess the state of the crowd, I was startled to find an impromptu mosh pit had broken out.
“Orange Peeler,” heavier in tonality relative to “Ugly Brunette” yet more upbeat in pace, shone brightest at the song’s climax, where glimmering guitar licks were usurped by crunchy tones. Featuring some of the most prolonged instrumental breaks of the night, the audience remained rapt, heads nodding softly along to Giannopoulos’ pessimistic projections.
Horse Jumper of Love, Sour Widows, and Teethe together became sedatives for the preoccupations of everyday life, exploring dark themes in their own approachable, dreamy methodologies. The Lodge Room facilitated the impact of the bands, all of its dark corners and vintage appeal creating a moody atmosphere remarkably compatible with slow burning beats and depressed lyricism.
Stream Horse Jumper of Love’s newest release, Disaster Track, here:
